Executive Director, Jessica Clark

Executive Director, Jessica Clark ​

Since August of 2008 Ms. Clark has served as the Executive Director of the Denver Urban Debate League. Prior to her work in Denver, she spent eight years working with the Impact Coalition in New York City, serving the teachers and students of the New York Urban Debate League as a coach, debate judge, and summer institute instructor.  In 2001, Jessica was the founding Program Director of the Brooklyn Debate Resource Center at Sesame Flyers International, where she provided full time debate support for hundreds of middle school and high school debaters in Brooklyn. As a college debater at The University of New Mexico, Jessica was a three-time qualifier for the National Debate Tournament and made numerous out round appearances at such tournaments as Emory, Northwestern and CEDA Nationals. In addition to her debate work, Ms. Clark has worked at performing arts non-profit organizations; and, in both the publishing and entertainment industries.  Jessica holds a M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. ​

Program and Operations Coordinator, Ruby Nunez

Although her focus of study is in the sciences, Ruby has been involved with the debate community throughout her academic career. While in high school she participated with the Denver Urban Debate League as a student competitor in Policy debate. In the subsequent 5 years she worked with the League to help middle school and high school students learn about and participate in Speech and Debate. While in college, Ruby was a member of the British Parliamentary Debate team four years. Three of these years were spent as a competitor and the fourth as an assistant coach. Ruby has a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science and is currently in the Graduate Program at the University of Colorado Denver pursuing a Master of Science in Environmental Science with a specialization in water quality. Ruby has been a member of the DUDL staff since 2016 as the Programs and Operations Coordinator.

Volunteer Coordinator, Gillian Breuer

A current junior at the University of Denver, Gillian studies public policy and business management. She also travels nationally and internationally as part of the University of Denver British Parliamentary Debate Team. In high school, she competed in policy debate. She started volunteering with the DUDL in 2016 as a member of the Pioneer Leadership Program. She has experience working with organizations like Scholars Unlimited, AmeriCorps VISTA, and the Inspire Youth Project. She is a 2015 Bezos Scholar and a 2016 Boettcher Scholar.

​Lead Marketing and Communications Intern, Danny Nguyen​

Danny was introduced to speech and debate sophomore year of high school when he took a public speaking class. During his junior year, his coach decided that his team would compete in DUDL. Since then, Danny has competed in multiple speech events and earned the award "Speaker of the Year". Danny is a class of 2017 alumni from Aurora Central High School. He is majoring in political science and wants to eventually become an educator. Currently he is the assistant coach for Aurora Central's speech and debate team.